Riot As Political Participation by the Powerless Class. From [HERE] and [HERE] Paris teenagers blockaded 16 secondary schools and clashed with riot officers in protests against police violence prompted by the alleged rape of a young black man with a truncheon.

Police fired tear gas on small groups of protesters and detained 21 people after a crowd of about 1,000 youths marched on the Place de la Nation, a square in eastern Paris linked to the French Revolution.

A helicopter flew overhead and tear gas clouds rose into the air above that square towards the end of the rally.

Flares were lit by protesters, some masked to hide their identity and protect themselves from the tear gas.

The youths were angry over the alleged rape of a 22-year-old man during a February 2 arrest in an area north of Paris - home to large numbers of immigrants. The man, identified only as Theo L, remains in hospital with injuries to his anus and head.

One police officer has been charged with raping Théo L in Aulnay-sous-Bois on 2 February, and three others have been charged with assault.

Four officers arrived at a housing estate in the northern Paris suburb and began stopping youths and asking to see identity papers. Théo, 22, was allegedly forced to the ground, beaten, and subsequently raped with a police baton, suffering such serious injuries that he needed emergency surgery.

French President François Hollande [above] visited Theo in hospital, and has promised that justice will be served. The four officers involved have been suspended; one has been charged with rape, the other three with assault.

French police are regularly accused of using excessive force, particularly against black and minority ethnic suspects.

The death in police custody last summer of Adama Traoré, a young black man, in Beaumont-sur-Oise outside Paris, and the slow reaction of authorities, sparked accusations of police violence and a state cover-up. An investigation is ongoing.